NFL teams will now have to deal with a super-motivated Lamar Jackson

One by one they went. Four quarterbacks were selected among the first 10 picks of the 2018 NFL Draft on Thursday, yet none of them were named Lamar Jackson.

Instead, Jackson had to wait all the way until the 32nd and final selection in the first round before his name was called by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The young quarterback is now a member of the Baltimore Ravens and he has already made it pretty clear how angry he is about slipping in this year’s draft.

But because Jackson isn’t a prototypical NFL quarterback, teams apparently didn’t want to use a draft pick on him this year. Yet one franchise had no problem trading up to select Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen on Thursday, despite his lack of actual production at a low-level Division I school.

So now Jackson is a member of the Ravens. He probably won’t play right away since Baltimore currently has Joe Flacco as their starting quarterback (unfortunately for them).

But in a year or two, it’s very possible that Jackson will be starting under center for the Ravens. What the Kansas City Chiefs did recently with Alex Smith and Patrick Mahomes could be something similar to what Baltimore has in store for their future quarterback situation.

There are always teams in need of a signal caller around the NFL and someone out there may actually take a trade for Flacco. There’s always at least one coach or general manager in the league who believes their team has the capabilities to resurrect a fading quarterback’s career.

If anything, the Ravens’ selection of Jackson on Thursday night is a clear indication that Flacco is on his way out. With a cap hit of more than $26 million in 2019, that exit will likely come sooner than later.

About Adam Patrick

Adam has been covering the NFL for the last five years and his work has been published by a number of sports-related websites you may or may not have heard of including USA TODAY, SB Nation, and FanSided. In addition to writing for The Comeback, Adam is also the Co-Editor of The Viking Age. If you want to make him laugh, he's always in the mood for a good Manti Te'o joke.